India's G20 presidency a big opportunity for the hospitality sector: Hyatt CEO 

Global hospitality chain Hyatt Hotels says it is seeing pent-up demand which is being driven by leisure travel. Mark Hoplamazian, President and CEO of Hyatt Hotels Corporation, told CNBC-TV18 that leisure travel has exceeded pre-pandemic levels while business travel is at 85-90 percent of pre-pandemic levels.

Mark said that high interest rates and remote working is taking a toll on the hospitality sector. He further said that India's G20 presidency is a big opportunity for the hospitality space.

"Leisure travel was 20-30 percent higher than it was pre-pandemic. Group travel that is corporate meetings is approaching somewhere between 85 and 100 percent depends on what market around the world you're in. And finally, individual business travel recovered around 80 percent recovered. It's varied over time, but in the United States, subsequent to the Labor Day weekend, which was the beginning of September, we saw steady increases in business travel. We're seeing it in India. So I would say it is recovering," Mark said.

"I think the G20 is going to be a big boom for India. In fact, as we speak, there's a group of delegates that are in their first planning session in the Grand Hyatt in Mumbai right now. So, I think that this is going to be something like over 250 meetings and gatherings over the course of the coming year across many different markets," Mark said, adding, "The Cricket World Cup is here in 2024 and they're gonna be other things that are going to be big demand drivers on a global basis. So I see more and more opportunities like that to really build a growing base of demand."